merry christmas!

and just like that it’s here!

2017 has been such an exciting year for us as a family, both in terms of personal achievements, but also in all our work ones too. I’m so proud of my gang for their calm, measured approach to life, for keeping me on my toes but also completely tied to the real world, and for always being my biggest cheerleaders. I feel like it has been a really instrumental year of changes – in the big ways like school moves and that old growing-up thing, and in all the myriad of little ways too.

As always, I’m so grateful for the support and encouragement of you guys, in this space and also elsewhere. In all honesty, I often get overwhelmed with the intensity of it all, but it’s often at those times that one of you will come to my rescue with the kindest word, a shared experience, or the smallest encouragement. It means the world, honestly it does. I never feel that I’m that great at vocalising how thankful I am, but I truly mean it!

So, what about next year then?

We’re starting off 2018 with a blog relaunch, and I’m really excited to show you the new space. I think I only mentioned it briefly on here before but we’ve been working away behind the scenes for a couple of months now and we’re almost ready to go. Nothing I do lately is ever achieved quickly – I’ve reached that crazy level of perfectionism in life where it needs to be faultless (in my eyes at least!) before I share it. I think we are pretty much there though and I am so in love with the new design, new name (eek!) and just the whole site navigation and new features. It’s so ‘me’, but a new 2018 me, and very reflective of all the growth that I’ve been subject to in this past year too.

In my New Year goals last year I talked a bit about how we wanted to make travel a real focus in 2017. I was never a big believer in the Law of Attraction before but, honestly, I think it worked for us this year. We took around ten trips in twelve months – some bigger ones and some smaller – and have so enjoyed documenting them as we’ve gone. We’d love to build on that in 2018 and, to that end, have two jaunts planned for the first couple of months of next year. I have a big birthday next Autumn and so we’re hoping to go on an extended trip in the Summer to celebrate that a little as well. I’m not really a party person (where the attention is focused on me at least!) and so I’m opting for travel over a big bash. I think Andrew is quite glad! 😉

Home wise, we’re still plodding on with finishing bits off and I know there’ll be a lot more interiors content to come next year. After the office is finished we’re moving on to our ensuite, which is one room in our house that I spend as little time as possible in, ha! It’s actually not that bad, but we opted for slate tiles when we moved in, and I’m realising four years in that they’re not the most practical for keeping clean. And then when your eye sees something it just can’t unsee it, eh? Anyway, I have grand plans so we’ll have to see how they pan out. 😉

Work-wise, things have really taken off for me this year and I’m noticing more and more how vibrant an industry blogging is becoming. It is really being given its full recognition now and it’s exciting to see the whole community grow and develop. I absolutely loved organising Blog Retreat last year and do hope to do something similar later next year. Getting to chat and spend time with so many lovely, inspiring people was amazing, and always the best part of this all for me. I say it quite often, but joining this little world has been the making of me in so many ways – in developing my confidence (and my thick skin!), in the connections that I have made with so many new, very dear friends, and in developing those areas of creativity that were lying a bit dormant for so many years too. It’s not an easy place at times, and it requires total dedication to create an income around it, but ultimately it’s the people that always bring me back. I’ll stick at it a wee bit longer! 🙂

So, see you after the holidays with a brand new, sparkly site. I hope you’ll like it as much as I do!

And, from my little family to yours, have the most wonderful Christmas break and wishing you the happiest and healthiest 2018.